intothewastesfandomcom-20200214-history
List of Grail Airships
Note As with both Grail military lists individual vehicles will recieve their own page if and when I complete the 3d model. Background When most citizens of Rojya or Falcon's Reach think of the Grail, they think of the immense cargo airships that plod along overhead, carrying wealthy passengers, and expensive goods across the continent. What are rarely seen are the smaller military airships, built for speed, and bristling with weapons. The variety of airships is too great to fully demonstrate, so only those that are of great importance will be mentioned. Heavy airships Similar to heavy cargo carriers the king and queen class are by far the largest and most dangerous things in the air. Queen class The Queen class was created to maim Kraken and obliterate large concentrations of waste creatures in a single pass. Other than the command gondola, the engine pods, and several self defense turrets, the only other structure on the airship is a long line of metal hooks, designed to attach the bomb load. A fully loaded queen class can carry up to 15000 pounds of bombs, though at maximum load it is unable to reach maximum altitude, leaving it at risk of attack by air defenses. The load can range from 250 pound "brick breakers" meant for area saturation, to the devastating 10,000 pound "Kraken buster" which is believed to be powerful enough to blow a hole in the Rojyan iron curtain big enough to allow sandships to drive through. Due to its bomb bay design it can also use glide bombs, 500 pound units with sheet metal wings to allow for powerful, though rather random, stand off attacks. King class The King class is somewhat less useful, as it was designed to provide heavy support for assault jumper units, and do to that it must come in at extremely low altitude, well with range of air defense. It has a 100mm sandship cannon on a semi flexible mount along the keel, and several HAC-75s mounted across the gondolas. They are primarily used because they are equipped with pressurized crew compartments, allowing for extended high altitude operations, perfect for reconnaissance and assault jumper deployment. It can also mount two RAW-125 launch packs, but no way to reload them. The 100mm guns are typically loaded with flak shells to engage air targets at very long range. In tests it has shown to be effective out to 2000 yards against medium airships, and 3000 yards against heavy airships. Medium airships Grifas The Grifas "Vulture" is designed as a night bomber It mounts advanced night vision optics, is specially painted to be difficult to see at night. The gas envelope is very long and thin, making it one of the fastest airships in use. It can carry up to 4000 pounds of bombs. In addition to its mission as a night bomber it's high speed increase survivability in suppression of enemy air defense missions. For SEAD operations it's primary weapon are "gremlin" bombs, named after the waste pest. A gremlin bomb consists of a casing that holds several dozen grenade sized fragmentary bombs around a small explosive charge. Once dropped the charge detonates while still in the air, scattering the smaller bombs across a wide area. The bombs are highly effective against infantry, a single bomb casing can clear approximately half an acre. Unprotected gun crews would have little chance of survival, and the fragments are likely to damage the delicate sights used in many anti aircraft weapons. Hammer gunship The Hammer class of gunship is designed to provide infantry with an unparalleled support platform. The underside of the envelope is lightly armored and internal gas bags are coated in flame retardant. The gondolas themselves are also armored, and the propellers are designed to be quickly replaced in case of damage. It is the heaviest armed airship currently in service, mounting: Four HAC-75 cannons. Eight twin AC-25 auto cannons. Four sextuple HMW-14 turrets, two twin HMW-14 turrets. One HR-25 sniper system. The hammer class is effective against most ground targets, including armored vehicles. The relatively low velocity of the HAC-75 is inconsequential when fired against the thin top armor. During the waste purge groups of three Hammer class ships would wander the wastes, hunting down and exterminating any waste creatures they encountered. Bandit groups typically go to ground the second one appears on the horizon. Spirit dropship Spirit class drop ships are designed to allow for combat deployment and light support. They are virtually identical in design to the Hammer class except they lack the HAC-75 batteries and reduced numbers of AC-25 turrets. The reduction of fire power allows the ship to carry upto fifty assault jumpers and their equipment. For infantry deployment the ship has doors designed to allow para drops, and attachment points for fast roping. In addition to the more conventional systems are three zip line guns. These are modified versions of an old 50mm infantry support gun, which fire either grappling hooks or barbed spikes attached to rope. The zip line system if primarily meant for deploying infantry on to the roofs of fortresses, though how well such an operation would go while under fire is debatable. To increase infantry survivability the Spirit is equipped with fifteen Pintle mounted HISW-8.5s meant to provide suppressing fire while the troops deploy, as well as three twin AC-25 turrets, three sextuple HMW-14 turrets, and four twin HMW-14 turrets. Spirit dropships normally operate closely with Hammer gunships, at a rate of two spirits escourted by one hammer. Scoundrel interceptor Built on the same gas envelope as the Grifas, the Scoundrel class of interceptors are bar none the fastest lighter than air vessels yet. Instead of conventional gas or diesel engines the Scoundrel mounts brand new electric motors, lighter and more powerful than the internal combustion engines it replaces. While it can only reach half the speed of a Rojyan powered glider the Scoundrel bristles with quad HMW-14 turrets and AC-25s that provide complete coverage of the vessel, including the has envelope. For larger targets and groups it mounts a pair of HAC-75s in the bow. In addition to more conventional weapons it also mounts a "garrotte" rocket launcher. The garrotte system utilizes a simple two stage rocket attached to a spool of razor wire. On launch the rocket flies perpendicular to the launch ship, and once the wire is fully spooled out rapidly changes direction, the wire following it. If used properly this system can cut a huge hole in an airship, and during testing a downward stroke completely severed the gas bag of a smaller airship. Light airships Sargas Meant for reconnaissance the Sargas "Watcher" is by far the smallest airship in active duty at only fifty feet long. Because if it's small size the crew are seated for the entire flight. The crew consists of the pilot, and the camera operator who resides in a modified HMW-14 quad turret mounting a reconnaissance camera and a flare launcher to illuminate the scene for night operations. They are less than popular because of their lack of defensive weapons, or any kind of space for the crew to move around. Category:List of Vehicles